Senator Bob Brown disingenuous on media bribe claim

The obvious question is why did Senator Brown wait 8 years to reveal that he was offered a large bribe. Brown's response:

However Senator Brown has defended his decision not to make the offer public at the time. "I didn't because it went nowhere and because in publishing an approach like that the advice I got was that I would [be] open to defamation ... because I was defaming a character who would very clearly deny that a conversation had ever taken place," he said.

There's at least 2 problems with this response. First, offering a bribe is a serious criminal offence and he should have reported to the police immediately. Secondly, as a Senator, he has the privilege of getting up in parliament and saying whatever he likes without fear of defamation action.

Comments

[Bob Meade]

Yes. He is however following the precedent set by Bill Heffernan who made a similar claim two months ago:

http://abcscience.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/13/2188705.htm?section=justin

Heffernan was not called to account.

[Trevor Cook]

Good point Bob

[kimbofo]

Maybe he was keeping his options open?